1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of an improved combination for a steering tube and crown which is used as part of a bicycle fork or motorcycle fork assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The following 14 patents and published patent applications are the closest prior art references to the present invention.
1. U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,569 issued to Thomas R. Ford on Jun. 13, 1989 for “Bicycle” (hereafter the “Ford patent”);
2. U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,458 issued to Brent J. Trimble on Feb. 20, 1990 for “Method Of Molding Composite Bicycle Frames” (hereafter the “Trimble patent”);
3. U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,417 issued to John Mouritsen and assigned to Cycle Composites, Inc. on Jan. 7, 1992 for “All Terrain Cycle Fork With Fiber Reinforced Resin Blades And Crown And Method Of Making Same” (hereafter the “Mouritsen patent”);
4. U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,237 issued to Tsai-Te Wang on Sep. 13, 1994 for “Bicycle Frame Consisted Of Carbon Fiber Frame Tubes And Metal Connectors” (hereafter the “Wang patent”);
5. U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,352 issued to Kyu-Wang Lee on Jun. 9, 1998 for “Bicycle Fork Having A Fiber Reinforced Steerer Tube And Fiber Reinforced Crown Blades And Method Of Making Same” (hereafter the “Lee patent”);
6. U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,048 issued to Thomas M. Fritschen on Jan. 25, 2000 for “Aero Bicycle Frame” (hereafter the “048 Fritschen patent”);
7. U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,104 issued to Ronald H. Nelson et al. and assigned to Trek Bicycle Corporation on Aug. 7, 2001 for “Composite Bicycle Frame And Methods For Its Construction” (hereafter the “Nelson patent”);
8. U.S. Pat. No. 6,340,509 issued to Ronald H. Nelson et al. and assigned to Radius Engineering, Inc. on Jan. 22, 2002 for “Composite Bicycle Frame And Method Of Construction Thereof” (hereafter the “Nelson patent”);
9. U.S. Pat. No. 6,503,589 issued to Thomas M. Fritschen on Jan. 7, 2003 for “Elongated Structural Member” (hereafter the “589 Fritschen patent”);
10. United States Published Patent Application No. 2005/0012299 issued to Brian E. Schuman, et al. on Jan. 20, 2005 for “Continuous Fiber Carbon Fork” (hereafter the “Schuman Published patent application”);
11. U.S. Pat. No. 6,655,707 issued to Daniel K. Buckmiller et al. and assigned to Advanced Composites, Inc. on Dec. 2, 2003 for “Net Shape Filament Winding Manufacturing Process, Articles Made Therefrom And Composite Bicycle Fork And Other Components” (hereafter the “Buckmiller Patent”);
12. U.S. Pat. No. 6,848,700 issued to Thomas M. Fritschen on Feb. 1, 2005 for “Bicycle With Improved Frame Design” (hereafter the “700 Fritschen Patent”);
13. U.S. Pat. No. 6,955,372 issued to Thomas M. Fritschen and assigned to Thomas M. Fritschen on Oct. 18, 2005 for “Bicycle With Improved Frame Configuration” (hereafter the “372 Fritschen Patent”);
14. U.S. Pat. No. 6,994,367 issued to Aaron Mock et al. and assigned to Trek Bicycle Corporation on Feb. 7, 2006 for “Metal And Reinforced Plastic Composite Bicycle Frame” (hereafter the “Mock Patent”).
The Ford Patent for a bicycle discloses a one piece frame made of resilient material for the bicycle. The steering pivot or stem 26 is connected to the fork assembly 28. The patent states on Column 3 Line 57 “while a wide variety of materials could be used, I prefer to use a wound fiber and plastic composite which presents a good combination of strength and resiliency.” This does not talk about the combination steering tube and crown of the present invention.
The Mouritsen Patent assigned to Cycle Composites, Inc. discloses a fork assembly which comprises a stiff steering tube made of metal and a generally hollow unitary crown and blade made of molded resin-impregnated fibrous material and a connecting assembly for interconnecting the steering tube to the unitary crown. The steering tube is molded integrally with the crown. The unitary blade and crown is made of fibrous material impregnated with synthetic resin. The steer assembly which is made of metal and is designated number 24 is molded to the crown by sections 52 which extend from the steering tube (see FIG. 6) so that it is integrally molded with the composite fork as shown in FIG. 3. In effect this is the reverse of the present invention in that it is the steering tube that is made of metal and the fork that is made of the composite material but the way the two or formed together is different than the present invention in addition to it being the reverse of the present invention.
The Wang Patent discloses a concept of having a bicycle frame where the frame tubes are comprised of carbon fiber and have metal connectors at either end of the carbon fiber tube. The connectors have respective male and female ends so that one connector can be connected to another connector while the tubes of the bicycle are made of carbon fiber.
The Lee Patent discloses the concept of having a combination steering tube and crown which are molded together wherein both the steering tube an the crown are made of fibrous resin material. The inside of the steering tube is lined with a fibrous resin which is bonded by molding to the crown to form a continuous and integral unit of fibrous resin material. Therefore, this patent discloses a concept of having both the steering tube and the crown molded together and both formed of fibrous resin material such as carbon fiber material.
The 048 Fritschen Patent is an aero bicycle frame. In this case referring to Column 14 beginning on Line 1 through Line 46 the invention discloses the concept of having the fork crown 13 which is preferably but not necessarily made of steel and is braided and/or bonded or fastened by other means to the steering tube 17 which is also made of steel. The fork is made of fiber reinforced composite laminate materials. The end of this paragraph states “it should be noted that, stated, said steering tube, said fork crown, and said bearing race support, and said front wheel receptors may be made of another suitable material, such as an injected molded plastics or fiber reinforced composites, in which case said fork blades and fiber composite fork crown may be bonded inside and outside of said steering tube or may be parts of a continuous molding of the same similar material with said steering tube said headset bearing race support and said fork crown.” However, it does not talk about having the present invention of having part of the steering tube made of carbon fiber and the crown made of metal. It talks about having the entire composites made of the same material bonded to each other or having the crown and steering tube made of metal while the fork is made of resin material.
The '104 Nelson Patent discloses a concept of having a bicycle frame which is formed by joint composite tubes and lugs and is therefore an all composite bicycle frame. The lugs are used to interconnect components to the bicycle frame. Therefore, this invention discloses the concept of having numerous components of the bicycle made of preformed composite material and drawn together by composite material lugs which join to various other components such as a bicycle seat.
The Trimble Patent also discloses a method of molding composite bicycle frame. This patent discloses the concept of once again making all the components of the bicycle frame out of resin material and interconnecting them.
The '509 Nelson Patent discloses a concept of making preformed bicycle frame components made of composite materials.
The 589 Fritschen Patent is a continuation of a previous patent application which was previously discussed as the 048 Fritschen Patent. This discloses substantially the same concept as previously discussed which includes having a combination of a steering tube and crown made of metal connected to a fork made of resin material and where it states that all components can be made of resin material but does not specifically have the combination of having the steering tube made of carbon fiber and the crown made of aluminum.
The '299 Schuman Published Patent Application discloses a concept of having a comolded dropout bonded to a steering tube and continuous fibers extending up from the tip to the steering tube. The fork is completely hollow throughout its length. Referring to section 28, the patent talks about having the entire combination of both the fork and crown and steering tube made of carbon fiber material or other comparable resin material. Therefore, this patent discloses the concept of having the entire assembly made of reinforced plastic including carbon fiber material.
The Buckmiller Patent includes a method of manufacturing a composite bicycle fork and other components. Referring to Column 10 Line 24, the patent discloses the concept of having fork legs which are made of two or more sections of composite material. This includes having the fork leg 1608 having an upper fork half leg 1607 and a lower fork half leg 1611 with a tapering occurring along their length from the crown 1606 to the wheel drop out 1609.
Also, referring to FIG. 27 there is a perspective view of another bicycle fork which is basically a one piece fork assembly which has the fork leg unit 2708 being continuous from drop out to drop out and is affixed to the crown 2701 by central mounting portion 2704 by means such as bonding, the use of fasteners, and the like. The fork includes a layer of structural foam between two layers of composite material. The foam can be included to achieve desired rigidity at low weight. While once again this discloses the use of various composite material for the forks, this invention does not disclose the combination of the present invention.
The '700 Fritschen Patent is a continuation-in-part of the 589 Patent. This patent discloses the same features as previously discussed in the '589 Fritschen Patent concerning the combination of having a steering tube and crown made of metal and the fork made of composite material.
The '372 Fritschen Patent is a continuation-in-part of the '700 Fritschen Patent.
The Mock Patent discloses a metal and reinforced plastic composite bicycle frame wherein a bicycle frame 10 is formed with a metal spine 12 and an upper assembly 14 formed of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy plastic. These combine to form portions of the rear triangle 16 and main triangle 20 together forming a bicycle diamond frame.
There is a significant need to significantly improve the molded assembly which combines a steering tube and crown for use of part of the fork assembly of a two wheeled vehicle such as a bicycle fork.